QUALIFYING

LEWIS HAMILTON DESCRIBED IT AS “ONE OF THE TOUGHEST qualifying sessions that I can remember”, but given it was his supremacy in wet conditions that allowed him to turn the tables on Ferrari in the previous two races at Hockenheim and the Hungaroring, he can’t have been too disappointed when he saw it spotting with rain as he rolled back to the pits on his Q2 slowdown lap.

With Valtteri Bottas always destined to start at or near the back thanks to a complete engine package change, the Finn headed into Q3 with the sole aim of giving Hamilton a tow. It seemed that strategy might work too, as Hamilton quickly passed Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to sit behind Bottas on track at the start of the top 10 shoot-out. Then the rain returned and Bottas lost it coming out of Blanchimont, though he kept his Mercedes out of the wall.

Eight of the 10 cars dived into the pits for intermediates, while only the Racing Point Force India drivers stayed out. An alarming moment for Sergio Perez in Eau Rouge that he brilliantly gathered up showed why that gamble was never going to work.

With Kimi Raikkonen, who looked a pole threat in dry conditions, being sent back out after a quick tyre change without refuelling – something that led to him being denied a final fast lap on his second set of intermediates – it boiled down to Hamilton versus Vettel. Both set their fastest times on their penultimate laps, with Hamilton 0.726 seconds faster.

Vettel said it was a chaotic session, complicated by traffic and the fact he had run out of battery power for the start of his key lap. He still matched Hamilton to the thousandth in the first sector, but lost four-tenths in the twisty middle sector and a further 0.332s in the final sector blast to line up second – by which time he had recovered some battery power. Ferrari could have managed it better, but it was Hamilton and Mercedes that nailed it. And Vettel lost significant time in Pouhon and under braking for the chicane independent of any electrical power mismanagement.

The Force Indias claimed third and fourth, Perez frustrated he didn’t have time to squeeze in a final lap for a tilt at pole. The Haas of Romain Grosjean and Raikkonen were next, with Max Verstappen suffering from the same problem as Kimi but beating Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to seventh.

“IT WAS HAMILTON AND HIS MERCEDES TEAM THAT NAILED IT”